LEGION BASEBALL: Nor-Gwyn ousts Perkiomen from Bux-Mont playoffs

QUAKERTOWN — Getting the three fundamentals of baseball lined up at the same time has been an issue for the Perkiomen Legion team this season.

Hitting, pitching defense ... many times the Indians have had one or two, but not all. In spite of that, they showed considerable improvement this year in both upping their win percentage and being a presence in the Bux-Mont League playoffs.

But it came unraveled Saturday. Needing a win to stay alive in the double-elimination playoffs, Perkiomen instead fell to Nor-Gwyn by a 12-6 count at Memorial Park. And in this case, defense — rather, not enough of it at key times — proved one of the more damaging aspects.

Five errors factored in seven of the Hawks’ runs being unearned. And drawing seven walks off four Indian pitchers enabled the league’s regular-season champions overcome a weak-hitting start that saw them not collect their first safety until they went two outs into the fourth inning.

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“If we play error-free, we can compete with anyone,” Perkiomen manager Mike Fitzgerald said after one final meeting with his club. “Today we had two bad innings, and they cost us.”

Nor-Gwyn used a four-run fifth to reverse the Indians’ initial 3-1 lead into a 5-3 deficit. And with five more in the course of a seventh-inning bataround, the Hawks padded a 7-4 cushion that effectively sealed Perkiomen’s fate.

The Indians added two more in the eighth, aided by successive singles from Josh Fell, Tom Aaron and Brendan Fitzgerald and Adam Ney’s RBI hit. But a 1-2-3 ninth by NG reliever Paul Haynie closed the door on Perkiomen’s season.

“My mentality was to throw strikes and let the defense make plays,” Haynie, who threw the last six frames, said. “I located my fastball early, and my slider was working.”

While Perkiomen packed up the bats and balls for the year, Nor-Gwyn is looking at more of an extended post-season run. Already qualified for the upcoming Region 2 tournament by virtue of their regular-season title, the top-seeded Hawks join Hatfield, Pennridge and host Quakertown in Sunday’s championship-qualifier round.

To that end, the replacement of Haynie for starter Brian Maher — he worked the first three, yielding seven hits but fanning four — proved strategically sound.

“With the playoffs going like they are, we wanted to get Maher some rest,” Haynie said. “We had guys who got innings in the second round.”

Perkiomen’s 16-hit attack was fueled by Fell, Aaron and Dalton Breyer all going 3-for-5. That total surpassed the combined 10 hits the sixth-seeded Indians collected in their early-round playoff games with Pennridge (2-1 loss) and Pottstown (4-3 win).

“We’ve gone through games not hitting like we did today,” Fitzgerald noted.

The locals’ pitching showed mixed results. Glenn Boyer, taking over for Brendan Fitzgerald three batters into the game, kept a no-hitter going until designated hitter Matt Hoy singled with two out in the fourth. And with one out in the fifth, Nor-Gwyn rode the momentum of successive doubles by Alex Peterson, Anthony Cameron and Chris Kersey to a lead that wasn’t headed the rest of the way.

“Even with the turmoil we faced early, we had them on their heels,” Fitzgerald said. “But we had to shut them down in the fifth.”

Jake Breyer replaced Boyer to start the seventh, but he was tagged for all the Hawks’ runs off three hits, a walk and sacrifice fly. Adam Ney took over with two out, closed out the frame, then twirled a 1-2-3 eighth aided by his teammates turning a 6-4-3 double play.

“That pitcher is only 15 years old,” Fitzgerald said of Boyer. “This was a good learning experience for him.

“We started with a pitcher coming off injury, so we knew he wouldn’t be going long. And we overcame that.”

Even with its abrupt end, Fitzgerald termed Perkiomen’s 2014 season — marked by a 16-16 overall record — “successful.”

“We were 3-17 last year and not even in the playoffs,” he recalled. “This year we got the sixth seed and played two terrific games.

“This exposure will lead to better things. Nobody was hanging their heads after this game.”

NOTES

Nor-Gwyn ran wild on the basepaths, stealing eight bags. Kersey had three swipes, and Peterson two. ... Perkiomen turned two double plays in the game. The first was particularly impressive, first-baseman Erik Stalford spearing Hoy’s shot to the left of the bag, then doubling Brad Bertucci off to close the inning.